Sum insured services by qualified quantity surveyors

Residential Services

There’s no doubt that making renovations to your home, or building a new house from scratch, involves financial risk. People regularly talk about project budgets being blown out of control and stressful relationships with builders.

Build cost services for homeowners - understand the true build costs

The heartache often associated with creating a home that suits your lifestyle is something that we are keen to help remove. We do this by helping homeowners understand and manage the costs of their renovation or build project before the work starts.

How quantity surveyors help with build cost management

On major construction projects such as hospitals or office blocks, developers need to know how much the build will cost them. Quantity surveyors provide this information by calculating the costs for all elements of a project from the quantity of concrete required to the area of paint needed, and the amount of landscaping. We even know how to estimate the professional fees involved and the GST. At Emmitt Consultants, we provide the same service to residential homeowners.

Controlling renovation costs at any stage of the build project

If you are about to renovate your house or build a new home and want to control your finances, we can get involved at any stage of a project. We act as your independent project accountant so that any tensions relating to finance are dealt with quickly and your project stays on-track.

Here’s where we can help you manage your renovation or build costs:

Are you at the ideas and concept drawings stage?

We can provide a Budget Cost Analysis for your build or renovation project. Our report will help you answer some important questions:

Can you afford your design aspirations?

Are there changes you could make to reduce costs?

A Budget Cost Analysis is priced from $750+GST and can save you from financially over-stretching yourself right at the start of the project.

Are you trying to choose a builder?

There are many different ways to find a builder for your project. We can offer advice on suitable tender processes, and which contracts are most suited to your particular situation. We can even help you find builders that we have had a good experience with in the past.

Once tenders come in, our Tender Analysis service includes a review of tender documentation and negotiating on your behalf with your chosen contractor. We provide a useful, independent benchmark when you are choosing your builder. This helps you:

Avoid paying too much for your project

Compare all tenders equally, even when some builders may have excluded detailed costs in their responses

The Tender Analysis service costs from $1800+GST and sets out to minimise your risk when choosing between quotes from builders.

Are you looking for help to manage costs during construction?

For large renovations and build projects, you’ll be releasing stage payments to your builder. We can act as your project accountants during this phase, performing checks on work done to date and making sure that any progress payments are correct and fair.

We check:

That the right amount of materials and labour is being charged for

That nothing is claimed twice

That you’re paying for what has been completed on site

Our Progress Claim Reports make it easy for you to understand what you’re paying for and why. Designed to create peace of mind, we charge from $750+GST per claim for our progress payments service.

During your build project, costs can shift when changes are made to the original specifications and design. These variations happen when you change your mind about an aspect of the design, when materials need to be substituted or when additional repair work needs to be made. We assess variations in a number of ways:

How does it impact the original budget?

Is it a legitimate change?

Is the cost fair and reasonable?

Detailed Variation Control Reports are essential if you’re looking to run your project to a tight budget. We also take on negotiations directly with the contractor on your behalf. These reports cost from $400+GST per month.

Help when you face your final bill

If you’ve lost sight of the financials during your build or renovation project, the final bill can come as a nasty shock. It isn’t unheard of for homeowners to receive bills over twice the amount in the original quotes. We don’t want that to happen so we offer a Final Accounts Assessment to clients before they pay the builder’s final bill. This makes sure:

All items are legitimate and correct

All work has been completed

All disputes are settled

All costs are fair and reasonable for the work carried out

Depending on what we find during the assessment, we are happy to negotiate between yourselves and your builder. Our aim is to negotiate final accounts that are fair to all parties. The Final Accounts Assessment involves detailed reporting and costs from $1800+GST.

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Client testimonials

We used Emmitt consultants for our rebuild valuation because they could provide the service in Hibiscus Coast. We can ensure our building insurance is adequate to rebuild our house should something occur to it.